1/21/2008 @ 3:00PM

The World's Most Expensive Universities

This may surprise you: The worlds most expensive universities are not haute institutions in the Swiss Alps or on the balmy shores of the Persian Gulf. Nor are they the Ivy League citadels of Americas elite like Harvard or Princeton, or ancient halls of learning like Cambridge or Oxford in the United Kingdom.

No, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the most expensive four-year university in the U.S. (and most likely the world) is Washington, D.C.s George Washington University, with a price tag of $39,240 in 2007-2008. Rounding out the top five: Ohios Kenyon College ($38,140), Bucknell University in Pennsylvania ($38,134) and Vassar College ($38,115) and Sarah Lawrence College ($38,090), both in New York. All private, all selective and all extremely pricey–and thats before room, board and books are factored in.

Those costs reflect a trend among private American universities–charge a stratospheric tuition fee, then offer a generous financial aid package. A GW official says the university provides the most need-based aid in the country, according to national rankings. For this years freshman class, that package was an average of $23,466. Next month, the schools new president is expected to announce a plan for improving affordability at GW.

The cost of obtaining a U.S. degree is among the highest in the world and rising, which may discourage international students, says a 2007 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Globally, the average cost of a public education in the U.S. ($4,587) was second only to Australia ($5,289) in 2003-2004, the years surveyed for the study. For private education, the U.S. schools have the highest average price tags.

Of course, the affordability of an education all depends on how much income one brings home. In Western Europe, where most universities are heavily subsidized by national governments, the price can appear astoundingly cheap. Even at Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom, a students contribution toward tuition is capped at 3,070 British pounds annually. The average cost of public higher education in Spain was only about $800 just five years ago, according to the GAO. But it’s worth noting that Europeans pay higher income taxes than Americans to pay for these and other social services.

Private universities in Europe can be as pricey as their U.S. counterparts. One example: The American University of Paris, just around the block from the Eiffel Tower, which charges 23,784 euros ($34,725 USD) annually for tuition and fees. Not good news for its U.S. students, which comprise 35% of the student population, as the dollar has fallen sharply against the euro in the past year. To be sure, there are indeed some pricey Swiss schools, like Franklin College near the Italian border, where tuition and fees are $30,860.

In many former communist countries, particularly in Eastern Europe and Africa, governments offer a “dual-track” tuition policy, where tuition is provided free to the nation’s top students but a fee is charged to everyone else. The alliance between student unions and far-left political parties in those countries makes governments terrified of tuition fees.

In general, tuition fees at non-U.S. private universities are below $10,000 per year. Some exceptions:

In Japan, where some of the best undergraduate programs are found at national universities (costing about $7,500 USD per year), top-rated private schools typically base their tuition on ones major. At Tokyos Aoyama Gakuin, an educational institute founded in 1874 by Methodist Episcopal missionaries, tuition ranges from $11,700 to $16,100 annually.

Canadas Quest University, which opened last September, charges $24,000 Canadian dollars ($23,420 USD) annually for an alternative-style education where students study just one subject at time for 18-day blocks.

In the U.K., the University of Buckingham, which claims to be the only university in the country that does not receive government aid, tuition fees are tiered and an undergraduate degree is packed into two years. All told, a Buckingham education costs 15,500 pounds ($30,400 USD) for British students and 27,000 pounds ($52,800) for international students. Its got prestige, though: former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a Buckingham chancellor.

Just as private U.S. universities are the worlds most expensive, American-style universities abroad fetch top-dollar tuition fees. One such is the American University of Sharjah, founded in 1997. Its a sign of globalization in the Persian Gulf region, with a wide range of degrees–from architecture to business–with all courses taught in English.

So what are beleaguered students and their parents to make of such high tuition fees? Take heart: Paying top dollar gets you a good education, but there are always attractive and far cheaper publicly funded alternatives available.

One thing to note: We excluded junior colleges and schools serving a particular need from our list. Had we included them, Vermonts Landmark College ($41,275 per year), which caters to students with learning disabilities, would have been first. Texas Culinary Academy ($38,850 annually) would have ranked third.